--- ---  # High-Earning Moms Lose Up to 10% of Their Income Per Child  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 2, 2016 5:56 PM UTC  Chris Parsons—Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 2, 2016 5:56 PM UTC High-earning moms can lose up to 10% of their income for every child they have, [_Bloomberg_ reports](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/bad-idea-to-have-that-baby-worse-if-you-re-a-high-earner). A [new study](http://asr.sagepub.com/content/81/6/1161.abstract), which was published in the _American Sociological Review,_ examined employment and family information from more than 5,000 women. The researchers found that low-income and middle-income women lose between 4% and 7% of their income per child, [according to _Quartz_](http://qz.com/850414/wealthy-white-american-women-are-especially-likely-to-suffer-career-setbacks-after-maternity-leave/). But highly-skilled and highly-paid women lose more money per child. “A lot of women are getting pushed into dropping out entirely for a few years because they can’t get a little leave at the beginning or because they can’t get enough flexibility,” New York University professor and the study’s lead researcher Paula England told _Bloomberg_. The publication explains that when high-earning women take a break from the workforce, they can miss out on career and financial opportunities that will impact their earnings down the line. England says that employers can counter this [“motherhood penalty”](http://www.thirdway.org/report/the-fatherhood-bonus-and-the-motherhood-penalty-parenthood-and-the-gender-gap-in-pay) by offering parental leave to employees and creating a culture that doesn’t shame women for taking time off to raise their children. But while women take a monetary hit for having children, men get financial bonuses of around 6% for every child they have, per _Bloomberg_. That’s because men with children are often seen as reliable, but for women, England said, “Employers have a bias that mothers are going to do worse, so they don’t promote them or pay them as much.” \[[_Bloomberg_](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/bad-idea-to-have-that-baby-worse-if-you-re-a-high-earner)\] Motherhood Penalty Costs High-Earning Moms 10% Income ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4589009/working-mothers-motherhood-penalty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4589009/working-mothers-motherhood-penalty/"},"headline":"High-Earning Moms Lose Up to 10% of Their Income Per Child","datePublished":"2016-12-02T17:56:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:01.461Z","description":"But men get a financial bonus","url":"https://time.com/4589009/working-mothers-motherhood-penalty/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8beaf2879950075/6988b074fb4eace6c889015a/motherhood-penalty-hits-high-earners.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8beaf2879950075/6988b074fb4eace6c889015a/motherhood-penalty-hits-high-earners.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Crumpled up and torn dollar bill","caption":"Crumpled up and torn dollar bill","creditText":"Chris Parsons—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4589009/working-mothers-motherhood-penalty/","name":"High-Earning Moms Lose Up to 10% of Their Income Per Child"}}]}] ```